Citizen participation in local government is essential to the long-term success of representative democracy. It must always be encouraged, and rewarded by being taken seriously.
It’s hard to imagine a more effective way to hose down such ideals than the action taken last week by the Everett City Council. By a 4-3 vote, and without public notice or comment, night council meetings were reduced to one per month, beginning immediately. Everett again becomes the only city in Snohomish County to hold regular council meetings on weekdays, when most citizens are busy with work or school.
Citizen participation wasn’t at the heart of this disappointing maneuver. Retribution was. This was the latest move in an internal council spat that has tarnished the council as an institution and its members — all of them — for behaving childishly at times over the past year. Each holds responsibility for creating or contributing to the antagonistic atmosphere that exists today, and each must take responsibility for putting an end to it.
A possible silver lining is the spotlight this tiff has put on council transparency and citizen involvement. Since the council voted to hold all its meetings at night a year ago — a move also made without public notice or comment and in retaliation for a perceived transgression by some members — public attendance hasn’t been noticeably better.
An absence of hot-button issues and initiatives during an election year and a recession may be responsible in part, but there’s likely a bigger reason.
Council meetings, during the day or at night, should feature meaningful debate and deliberation. Yet much of the pivotal discussion of weighty council issues takes place in committee meetings, with few or no citizens watching. By the time issues get to the full council, positions tend to have been taken, rendering citizen input a futile exercise. Why go to the trouble of speaking your mind at a council meeting if the deal is already done?
Council meetings should offer a forum for citizens to offer ideas directly to their elected representatives. They should be where important decisions are made, not just rubber stamped. And yes, most or all of them should be held in the evening, when the greatest number of citizens have a chance to be there.
Make them worth attending. Then see what happens to attendance.
The year is still new. We call on Everett City Council members — all seven of them — to resolve to put the citizens they serve first. Get past the tit-for-tat and behave like the leaders you were elected to be.
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